What do you think?
Rate this book
How to Make a Few Billion Dollars
Do you have a burning passion to make a lot of money in business? Are you ready to turbocharge your chances of professional and personal success?
During his more than four decades as a CEO and serial entrepreneur, Brad Jacobs has created seven flagship companies across different industries, delivering tens of billions of dollars of value to shareholders. In How to Make a Few Billion Dollars, Jacobs defines the mindset that drives his remarkable success in corporate America—and distills a lifetime of business brilliance into a tactical road map.
From provocative recommendations for “rearranging your brain”—an essential prerequisite to accomplishing enormous goals—to practical advice for dealing with colleagues, Jacobs will have you rethinking what it means to win big. He explains why it’s critical to spot key trends and capitalize on them, including the biggest trend of all—the rapid evolution of technology relative to human development. And, he shares his techniques for
• turning a healthy fear of failure to your advantage,
• achieving lots of high-quality M&A without imploding,
• building an outrageously talented team,
• catalyzing electric meetings, and
• transforming a company into a superorganism that kills the competition.
How to Make a Few Billion Dollars is an inside look at how this entrepreneurial titan leads with humility, compassion, and accountability, while running hard toward the American Dream. If your personal dream is to create wealth through free markets or to triumph in sports, the arts, politics, philanthropy, or any other part of your life, this book will help you make that a reality.
During his more than four decades as a CEO and serial entrepreneur, Brad Jacobs has created seven flagship companies across different industries, delivering tens of billions of dollars of value to shareholders. In How to Make a Few Billion Dollars, Jacobs defines the mindset that drives his remarkable success in corporate America—and distills a lifetime of business brilliance into a tactical road map.
From provocative recommendations for “rearranging your brain”—an essential prerequisite to accomplishing enormous goals—to practical advice for dealing with colleagues, Jacobs will have you rethinking what it means to win big. He explains why it’s critical to spot key trends and capitalize on them, including the biggest trend of all—the rapid evolution of technology relative to human development. And, he shares his techniques for
• turning a healthy fear of failure to your advantage,
• achieving lots of high-quality M&A without imploding,
• building an outrageously talented team,
• catalyzing electric meetings, and
• transforming a company into a superorganism that kills the competition.
How to Make a Few Billion Dollars is an inside look at how this entrepreneurial titan leads with humility, compassion, and accountability, while running hard toward the American Dream. If your personal dream is to create wealth through free markets or to triumph in sports, the arts, politics, philanthropy, or any other part of your life, this book will help you make that a reality.
206 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 15, 2024
816 people are currently reading
4582 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews
March 24, 2024
Quick and worthwhile read. The title is more money centric than the book, which is more about how to be a good leader / thinker than making a ton of money. Main takeaways:
- Effective people see problems as puzzles to be solved.
- Effective people have also re-wired their brains to think expansively and positively. Jacobs has some fairly wacky but interesting thought exercises he does to help himself do these things (sort of like meditation…but visualizing really big things like the Big Bang / collapse of the universe). The main benefit of this skill is the ability to forecast industry trends and capitalize on them before others.
- On that topic, he’s become a student of each industry he’s gone into. He reads and consumes information obsessively to make himself an expert.
- Most meetings suck. He makes meetings engaging by crowdsourcing agendas (review materials, submit questions to him, he synthesizes, then people rank to form final agenda), keeping canned presented content to a minimum, encouraging disagreement, and being intentional about things like showing appreciation / gratitude / respect.
- The most value comes from big and complicated deals.
- He’s a big believer in highly direct, honest and frequent communication with more stakeholders than are obviously necessary. Communication gives people context to make decisions and fosters respect.
- He doesn’t understand why investors try to play hard ball with sellers. When he likes a business he tells the owners how great their business is and how much he admires them.
- He overpays his best people. To determine whether someone’s an A, B or C he does a thought exercise where he imagines how he’d feel if they quit on the spot. If he panics they’re an A. If he’s happy they’re a C. If he’s meh they’re a B.
- Effective people see problems as puzzles to be solved.
- Effective people have also re-wired their brains to think expansively and positively. Jacobs has some fairly wacky but interesting thought exercises he does to help himself do these things (sort of like meditation…but visualizing really big things like the Big Bang / collapse of the universe). The main benefit of this skill is the ability to forecast industry trends and capitalize on them before others.
- On that topic, he’s become a student of each industry he’s gone into. He reads and consumes information obsessively to make himself an expert.
- Most meetings suck. He makes meetings engaging by crowdsourcing agendas (review materials, submit questions to him, he synthesizes, then people rank to form final agenda), keeping canned presented content to a minimum, encouraging disagreement, and being intentional about things like showing appreciation / gratitude / respect.
- The most value comes from big and complicated deals.
- He’s a big believer in highly direct, honest and frequent communication with more stakeholders than are obviously necessary. Communication gives people context to make decisions and fosters respect.
- He doesn’t understand why investors try to play hard ball with sellers. When he likes a business he tells the owners how great their business is and how much he admires them.
- He overpays his best people. To determine whether someone’s an A, B or C he does a thought exercise where he imagines how he’d feel if they quit on the spot. If he panics they’re an A. If he’s happy they’re a C. If he’s meh they’re a B.
March 19, 2025
This is one of the best business books I’ve ever read. Unlike other businesses leaders and authors like Ray Dalio or Warren Buffett, Jacobs stands out for his hands-on experience in running real businesses. He provides practical techniques and tips on managing competitors and leading companies, not just from a financial or investor perspective, but from the real-world operations standpoint. It’s an invaluable resource for entrepreneurs, CEOs, and aspiring leaders, offering clear, practical insights that make it almost a manual for business success. Highly recommended!!!
August 20, 2024
I am part way through this book and I am so enraged I have to make this note right now.
Obviously I’m not opposed to making money, I’m reading this book that is named “How To Make A Few Million Dollars”. My reasons for reading it are less about personal ambitions of making billions of dollars and more about Brad Jacob’s new company QXO with which he aims to capture $50 billion of the building materials distribution industry. He has a playbook he has used across multiple business startups across other industries so you are darn tootin that I’m going to read about this corporate strategy from a person venturing into the industry I am in.
I want to note that I have listened to multiple interviews with Brad and find him to be engaging, kind, and interesting. I am not trying to aggressively attack him personally. But here we are.
Brad is pretty clear that his purpose in these companies is to create shareholder value. He does innovate but not for innovations sake. He does help drive excellence but not for excellence sake. He points out that he has made people wealthy that have worked FOR him, not just those who invest in his companies. But that isn’t his purpose. His purpose is big returns for shareholders. While I understand that has been the purpose of business for the last 50 years+, I disagree with it and believe that stakeholder value is a better metric to use, which does compensate shareholders but also makes sure that other stakeholders are taken into account.
So you can imagine my ire when Brad is waxing poetic about how he is an acolyte of some guy who says that AI could bring about the extinction of human beings. To which Brad shrugs and says that 99.9% of all species that ever lived have gone extinct and why shouldn’t we, after all, we haven’t even figured out how to eliminate poverty and homelessness….EXCUSE ME?!! Do you mean the literal billions of dollars you have created via your business ventures that have gone back into the pockets of your rich investors who then can buy more assets and invest again to create more billions that they sit on in their mansions, while you flippantly say “we can’t figure out how to eliminate homelessness, o well! Guess we will go extinct!”
What if you took your fortune and your shareholder value and built housing for the people who can’t afford it? You could start with the community you live in, Greenwich, CT, where the average cost of buying a home is $1.4 million! Which is also where your various corporations headquarters are. If I was a corporate employee employed by you, an educated, white collar worker, I couldn’t afford to live within commutable distance of my place of work. What about the barista or retail worker in Greenwich? Do they have housing?
What if for every robotic picker that eliminates a real worker in your warehouses, you provide that person with a new job and a living wage? What if you subsidize college for every single child living below the poverty line in your state? I could go on.
I mean, I guess if guys as intelligent and talented and as fucking RICH as you can’t figure out how to solve situations that literally just need money, then we do deserve to face extinction at the hands of Generative AI 🙄
Obviously I’m not opposed to making money, I’m reading this book that is named “How To Make A Few Million Dollars”. My reasons for reading it are less about personal ambitions of making billions of dollars and more about Brad Jacob’s new company QXO with which he aims to capture $50 billion of the building materials distribution industry. He has a playbook he has used across multiple business startups across other industries so you are darn tootin that I’m going to read about this corporate strategy from a person venturing into the industry I am in.
I want to note that I have listened to multiple interviews with Brad and find him to be engaging, kind, and interesting. I am not trying to aggressively attack him personally. But here we are.
Brad is pretty clear that his purpose in these companies is to create shareholder value. He does innovate but not for innovations sake. He does help drive excellence but not for excellence sake. He points out that he has made people wealthy that have worked FOR him, not just those who invest in his companies. But that isn’t his purpose. His purpose is big returns for shareholders. While I understand that has been the purpose of business for the last 50 years+, I disagree with it and believe that stakeholder value is a better metric to use, which does compensate shareholders but also makes sure that other stakeholders are taken into account.
So you can imagine my ire when Brad is waxing poetic about how he is an acolyte of some guy who says that AI could bring about the extinction of human beings. To which Brad shrugs and says that 99.9% of all species that ever lived have gone extinct and why shouldn’t we, after all, we haven’t even figured out how to eliminate poverty and homelessness….EXCUSE ME?!! Do you mean the literal billions of dollars you have created via your business ventures that have gone back into the pockets of your rich investors who then can buy more assets and invest again to create more billions that they sit on in their mansions, while you flippantly say “we can’t figure out how to eliminate homelessness, o well! Guess we will go extinct!”
What if you took your fortune and your shareholder value and built housing for the people who can’t afford it? You could start with the community you live in, Greenwich, CT, where the average cost of buying a home is $1.4 million! Which is also where your various corporations headquarters are. If I was a corporate employee employed by you, an educated, white collar worker, I couldn’t afford to live within commutable distance of my place of work. What about the barista or retail worker in Greenwich? Do they have housing?
What if for every robotic picker that eliminates a real worker in your warehouses, you provide that person with a new job and a living wage? What if you subsidize college for every single child living below the poverty line in your state? I could go on.
I mean, I guess if guys as intelligent and talented and as fucking RICH as you can’t figure out how to solve situations that literally just need money, then we do deserve to face extinction at the hands of Generative AI 🙄
May 2, 2024
This was my first time reading a book straight through without putting it down, and I’m surprised at how low a profile Brad Jacobs has maintained up until 2023. This guy is the King of M&A, with 500 acquisitions, $30 billion raised from investors, and 7 companies founded that went on to become multibillion-dollar firms. In a world awash with woke ideology that looks down upon money, he’s uncompromising about his chief desire to create enormous shareholder value. A refreshing read from a gifted entrepreneur.
January 22, 2024
Brilliant businessman; dull and uninsightful book
Could have been an amazing book if he’d told the history and story of his companies, but it’s prescriptive advice that reads like a PowerPoint presentation of what he thinks made him successful. In the book he says he wants his meetings to be electric. Wish he’d had the same ambition for this book! He’s had such an amazing career that I bet there are tons of stories and examples that would have been eye-opening if he hadn’t taken the safe route of textbook over tell-all regarding all the hard choices I’m sure he’s had to make. What were the challenges and how did you navigate them? Guess we’ll never know.
Could have been an amazing book if he’d told the history and story of his companies, but it’s prescriptive advice that reads like a PowerPoint presentation of what he thinks made him successful. In the book he says he wants his meetings to be electric. Wish he’d had the same ambition for this book! He’s had such an amazing career that I bet there are tons of stories and examples that would have been eye-opening if he hadn’t taken the safe route of textbook over tell-all regarding all the hard choices I’m sure he’s had to make. What were the challenges and how did you navigate them? Guess we’ll never know.
February 15, 2025
I’ve started five companies from scratch—and turned them all into billion-dollar or multibillion-dollar enterprises. This book is about what I’ve learned from my blunders
My career in business began in 1979, when I started a privately owned oil brokerage company called Amerex Oil Associates. I was 23 years old at the time, with just a few thousand bucks in hand and no experience. Within four years, my partners and I had $4.7 billion in annual brokerage volume, with offices worldwide.
a 55 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR)
I currently chair all three companies, and each business is helmed by a strong CEO.
These experiences have allowed me to share thought experiments that can help you learn to think differently—an essential prerequisite to accomplishing big things.
The question, “What was the happiest part of your day?” has a more uplifting effect than “How was your day?”
cognitive distortions, from catastrophizing (thinking of small problems as enormous impediments) to dichotomous thinking (having rigid or “all-or-nothing” views).
When I notice I’m feeling anxious about something, I ask myself a basic CBT question: “What’s the worst that can happen, and how would I cope with that?” Or, “If a friend had a similar worry, how would I advise them to handle it?” By putting distance between myself personally and the source of the anxiety, I can think more objectively about positive outcomes.
circumstances. I usually spend about half an hour a day meditating—15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at night
the boundaries of my senses get mixed up and I slip into synesthesia. I might see sounds, or hear colors, or smell emotions.
Phibro became a client of my oil brokerage business. Before long, we were lunching regularly
The business world is about finding problems. Problems are an asset— not something to avoid but something to run toward.
Big ambitions often beget even bigger problems. If your initial reaction to a major setback is overwhelming frustration, that’s understandable, but it’s also counterproductive. Once you’re over that moment, pivot toward success: “Great! This is an opportunity for me to create a lot of value. If I can just figure out how to solve this problem, I’ll be much closer to my goal.
Richard Feynman, summed up the value of dialectical thinking when he said, “We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.
Sometimes I’m wrong when I think I’m right. So, I’m always ready to change my beliefs based on new information.
when I ran United Rentals. It was the late 1990s, and my ears perked way up when Congress enacted TEA-21, the Transportation Equity Act.
mental crosshairs
I was already hosting a number of fund managers at my house that night for dinner, as well as a few people from my team.
The short-seller crisis had made our stock extremely cheap, and instead of fixating on that as bad, we decided to buy back $2 billion worth of our stock.
You can mess up a lot of things in business and still do well as long as you get the big trend right.
One of the first things I look for in an industry is I want to be able to envision how I’ll take a business from a few million dollars to tens of billions of dollars.
What will be the path to do that, and how fast can we move along that path?
Is the industry growing much faster than GDP so that we’ll probably generate top-line growth each year just by showing up and can build from there?
What’s the base price/volume combination we need to be profitable, and how realistic is it to significantly increase our profit margin over time?
What could prevent us from doing that?
Structurally, is it an industry where companies have advantages of size and economies of scale?
Are there ways to grow the business organically or through M&A?
What multiples will I likely have to pay for companies I acquire, and is that number a large enough discount from the multiple I’d expect my company to trade at? This is important because the arbitrage between our cost of capital and what multiple we’re able to buy companies at is the biggest value-creation lever in a roll-up. Improving the actual profitability of the business is the second-biggest lever.
Is there a technology threat or opportunity or both? For example, are there ways to automate business processes and drive customer service higher at a lower cost of labor?
How could AI impact the industry, both positively and negatively?
I use a three-part methodology for my research: I educate myself on the industry as thoroughly as possible, compile a list of questions that matter, and then do my best to get in front of the most knowledgeable experts I can find on each topic. It’s not a perfectly linear process, because more questions arise as I continue my research
I start by reading everything I can get my hands on—journals, periodicals, newspapers, trade publications, employee reviews on webbased recruiting sites, you name it. I look at all the websites and social media of the major players and the up-and-comers in the industry. I set Google Alerts for industry CEO names or other keywords, and I watch lots of YouTube interviews with CEOs. I also use paid services like Bloomberg, AlphaSense, and Thomson Reuters.
In addition, I look at analyses from sell-side and buy-side analysts and search the SEC database—www.sec.gov/edgar—which has large amounts of information on every publicly traded U.S. company, including IPO documents, financial reports, and proxies.
I also scope out the most valuable industry conferences and attend them if I can. Events like the Wall Street Journal’s The Future of Everything Festival and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES®) in Las Vegas have valuable content, with a lot of it online. Sell-side conferences sponsored by the banks are an opportunity to meet management teams face-to-face and hear the questions investors are asking.
I also belong to the Business Council and the Economic Club of New York, which are valuable networking resources for me. They give me an entrée to CEOs in almost any industry I’m interested in learning more about.
In addition to CEOs, I seek out investment bankers who are most active in the industry and who know it deeply—bankers who have close relationships with management teams, have advised on lots of acquisitions in the space, and have raised billions of dollars of capital for these clients.
AI appears to be more of a friend than foe to the homebuilding industry, along with staple sectors of the economy, such as clothing and food.
we have an ingrained tendency to discount technological and social change. Most of us are programmed toward believing things will stay the same. Even Thomas Watson, the former chairman and chief executive of IBM, once said, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” That was in 1943.
Currently, the global economy is still based on an outdated model of sourcing cheap labor overseas, especially from China, and then paying a high price to get it transported to the consumer. For example, the goods travel on a plane or ship from Shanghai to Los Angeles, and then the dray containers go by rail to Chicago, where they’re put on a truck and driven to a warehouse in Kansas City. Eventually, the product is trucked the “last mile” to a consumer’s home or to a retail or manufacturing location. It’s a complex and expensive process, and there are plenty of opportunities for disruptions. This became painfully obvious to everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic. 3D printing can reduce the complexity, time, and cost of supply chains and de-risk links in the process.
The lack of timely information was a big problem for oil brokers like Amerex; we made our money by matching buyers and sellers and taking a commission. I could see that there were isolated pockets of valuable oil pricing data trapped all over the globe. And I knew that if we could figure out a better way to share that information, we could unlock a lot of value.
With Amerex humming, I had an opportunity to move to London with a billion-dollar line of credit. In 1984, I started Hamilton Resources, a privately owned worldwide oil trading company, this time with a strategy to create a data advantage in the oil trading business.
My next start-up was in the U.S. waste management industry. I remember vividly the moment the industry caught my attention in 1989. I was reading Merrill Lynch research reports in bed on a lazy Sunday morning in London, and came across a report written by Bill Genco, the top-ranked analyst for environmental services then. Bill had written that the two largest companies in the waste industry at the time, Waste Management and Browning-Ferris, were each making about half a billion dollars a year in profit, and I thought, How hard can it be to have trucks pick up trash, deposit it in a safe place, and send out an invoice?
in 1997, some of those competitors were still using pencil and paper and pushpins to do what we had computerized.
For example, if our data flagged an instance of too much equipment of a certain type in the Southeast, we’d lower the rental rate there and target customers who wanted the machine for several months, rather than just days or weeks. In other words, we were able to manage our rental rates efficiently based on equipment utilization to get the best return.
concept of dynamic pricing
We also stress-test every element of our projections, including the underlying assumptions. How likely are we to hit the base-case projected numbers? What is the upside scenario? The downside scenario?
For me, the decision is unequivocal: If an acquisition doesn’t create shareholder value by producing a high return on invested capital, if it doesn’t help us thrill our customers, or differentiate our offering, or fill a strategic gap, then it will just make us bigger, not better.
We can typically cut the due diligence and negotiation period from two or three months to a matter of weeks. To achieve this, we do a lot of research before we make our initial contact with the target business. As a result, our first or second meeting with a seller often goes something like this: “This is what we’re prepared to pay for your business, on these terms. If this is acceptable, we can be signing a definitive agreement in two weeks.” That’s going to get their attention.
What will be the big drivers of profitable growth in this business over the next five to ten years? What do we have to believe in order to be confident we’re going to achieve that growth? Are the assumptions underlying these beliefs reasonable or easily derailed? Are there big hockey sticks to the growth of revenue and margin without credible explanations for them? Can we accelerate scale more rapidly and at a much lower cost base by deploying AI, automation, or robotics?
What are the synergies we can expect from the integration? If the operational execution isn’t up to par, is this something we have the capability to rectify through training and/or our technology? What are the redundant positions, overhead, and real estate costs? What procurement savings can we realize from the added scale? Is there an opportunity for cross-selling to the rest of our company?
What’s the level of morale in the organization? Are the right people in place, with an effective organizational chart? Where might they be overstaffed or understaffed? Is the salesforce top-notch, or is there an opportunity to train them to be more effective? The same question holds for the human resources and financial planning and analysis staff. Are the compensation plans properly structured to motivate people to contribute to the business plan, or is that another opportunity to improve?
And externally, how do customers regard this business? Is pricing too high or too low to be optimal for the market? Are there any trends in government regulations or political policies that could help or hurt the business?
One way to keep up the pace but avoid the pressure is to talk to multiple acquisition targets simultaneously so that you never feel you must do any specific deal.
With United Rentals, for example, I could clearly envision what companies I wanted to buy and why—the list was right there, hundreds of small companies doing the things we intended to do on a grand scale.
I can’t think of anything less appealing than expending capital, taking on cost, and disrupting operations for no compelling advantage to my shareholders and customers.
This example is from my roll-up of the waste management industry: I bought a garbage collection company from an owner who signed a binding noncompete agreement. Then, when the ink was barely dry, his daughter just happened to open a competing garbage collection company down the street from the business we bought and started calling on what were now our customers. Granted, she didn’t personally sign the noncompete, so technically she wasn’t bound by its terms—but ethically? I felt she was.
One of the best uses of my time in the due diligence process is to do faceto-face talks with the top 15 or so people in the company we’re in the process of buying. I give these interviews an extra-high priority. They take about 90 minutes each
The sooner we can bring an acquired business into our technology ecosystem, the better. We want one enterprise platform, one human resources system, one CRM (customer relationship management) database for salesforce management, one business intelligence database, one internal social media community, one KPI (key performance indicator) dashboard, one training curriculum, and one email system. In addition, every new employee gets our procedures and policies manual, including our code of business ethics.
We place a priority on closing the acquisition books cleanly and standardizing the financial statements, monthly operating reviews, and budget so everyone is using the same format to present the numbers. We also move everyone to our incentive compensation plans and benefits programs. That way, we can benchmark people and locations, and instill accountability.
What’s the business doing well, that we’d be crazy to change? What’s the business doing not so well, that we’d be crazy not to change? What’s your best idea to improve the business? What’s something that could be made more profitable? Or more customer-friendly? Or improve the workplace environment?
feel free to tell me when I’m messing stuff up, and I’ll listen to you. We’re all on the same team now.
Some crowdsourced ideas will make it to the finish line and some won’t.
A prospective executive will go through seven or eight interviews, sometimes more, before joining the team. We’ll take all the time we need to find the right person, and we’ll leave a position open rather than hire someone we’re unsure about. An empty seat is less damaging than a poor fit.
When we meet to discuss whether to go ahead with the hire, I expect my team to respectfully disagree with me and with one another if they hold different views. By working collaboratively, we maintain a strong filter for who’s allowed into the organization.
you need a team of people who are smart, hardworking, honest, and kindhearted.
Screening for superior intelligence eliminates 90 percent of all candidates, so it’s the first thing I look at.
The smartest thing I do as a CEO is to make sure that most of the people I hire are smarter than I am.
the risk of confusing pedigree with ability.
Even a hint of arrogance can be a red flag. To guard against it, I ask myself two questions when assessing a candidate in my one-on-one interviews. First, “Can this person think dialectically?” That is, are they capable of thinking from multiple perspectives, and reconciling streams of information that seem to flow in different directions? And second, “Are they capable of changing their opinion?”
We meet one-on-one and ask each other to rate the quality of our professional relationship on a scale of one to ten. Then, if it’s not a ten, there’s a follow-up question: “What would make our professional relationship a ten?” These two simple steps are likely to surface ways to easily improve the relationship.
Wayland’s advice was to act decisively but compassionately once it becomes evident that an employee isn’t a match for the company. This is a difficult moment for the employee being terminated. Show them kindness, regardless of the circumstances leading to their dismissal. Let them go with their head held high and don’t be cheap on severance. Don’t create a situation where, a decade from now, you still avoid them in the supermarket.
monthly and quarterly operating reviews—MORs and QORs—are the most important meetings on the agenda. MORs happen every 30 days or so; we discuss the results of the prior month and define the opportunities of the coming month. In addition, we hold a QOR every third month to discuss the prior quarter as a whole before publicly reporting our earnings.
Some of the questions that have come my way are as follows: Why is revenue with a top customer trending down, and what can we do to coursecorrect it? Why didn’t the IT team launch the tool they said would go live last week? How can we improve the forecasting process for seasonal demand?
unvarnished honesty
“What’s your single best idea to improve our company?” and “What’s the stupidest thing we’re doing as a company?” This survey goes out every 90 days as an electronic transmission to every employee who has a corporate email address
provision
I never forget that my teams and I are fiduciaries for other people’s money.
In the history of our working relationship, he’s misdiagnosed a problem, ordered the wrong part, normal human-error stuff that we all do. He owns up to the occasional lapse and sets things right in a hurry.
My career in business began in 1979, when I started a privately owned oil brokerage company called Amerex Oil Associates. I was 23 years old at the time, with just a few thousand bucks in hand and no experience. Within four years, my partners and I had $4.7 billion in annual brokerage volume, with offices worldwide.
a 55 percent compounded annual growth rate (CAGR)
I currently chair all three companies, and each business is helmed by a strong CEO.
These experiences have allowed me to share thought experiments that can help you learn to think differently—an essential prerequisite to accomplishing big things.
The question, “What was the happiest part of your day?” has a more uplifting effect than “How was your day?”
cognitive distortions, from catastrophizing (thinking of small problems as enormous impediments) to dichotomous thinking (having rigid or “all-or-nothing” views).
When I notice I’m feeling anxious about something, I ask myself a basic CBT question: “What’s the worst that can happen, and how would I cope with that?” Or, “If a friend had a similar worry, how would I advise them to handle it?” By putting distance between myself personally and the source of the anxiety, I can think more objectively about positive outcomes.
circumstances. I usually spend about half an hour a day meditating—15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at night
the boundaries of my senses get mixed up and I slip into synesthesia. I might see sounds, or hear colors, or smell emotions.
Phibro became a client of my oil brokerage business. Before long, we were lunching regularly
The business world is about finding problems. Problems are an asset— not something to avoid but something to run toward.
Big ambitions often beget even bigger problems. If your initial reaction to a major setback is overwhelming frustration, that’s understandable, but it’s also counterproductive. Once you’re over that moment, pivot toward success: “Great! This is an opportunity for me to create a lot of value. If I can just figure out how to solve this problem, I’ll be much closer to my goal.
Richard Feynman, summed up the value of dialectical thinking when he said, “We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.
Sometimes I’m wrong when I think I’m right. So, I’m always ready to change my beliefs based on new information.
when I ran United Rentals. It was the late 1990s, and my ears perked way up when Congress enacted TEA-21, the Transportation Equity Act.
mental crosshairs
I was already hosting a number of fund managers at my house that night for dinner, as well as a few people from my team.
The short-seller crisis had made our stock extremely cheap, and instead of fixating on that as bad, we decided to buy back $2 billion worth of our stock.
You can mess up a lot of things in business and still do well as long as you get the big trend right.
One of the first things I look for in an industry is I want to be able to envision how I’ll take a business from a few million dollars to tens of billions of dollars.
What will be the path to do that, and how fast can we move along that path?
Is the industry growing much faster than GDP so that we’ll probably generate top-line growth each year just by showing up and can build from there?
What’s the base price/volume combination we need to be profitable, and how realistic is it to significantly increase our profit margin over time?
What could prevent us from doing that?
Structurally, is it an industry where companies have advantages of size and economies of scale?
Are there ways to grow the business organically or through M&A?
What multiples will I likely have to pay for companies I acquire, and is that number a large enough discount from the multiple I’d expect my company to trade at? This is important because the arbitrage between our cost of capital and what multiple we’re able to buy companies at is the biggest value-creation lever in a roll-up. Improving the actual profitability of the business is the second-biggest lever.
Is there a technology threat or opportunity or both? For example, are there ways to automate business processes and drive customer service higher at a lower cost of labor?
How could AI impact the industry, both positively and negatively?
I use a three-part methodology for my research: I educate myself on the industry as thoroughly as possible, compile a list of questions that matter, and then do my best to get in front of the most knowledgeable experts I can find on each topic. It’s not a perfectly linear process, because more questions arise as I continue my research
I start by reading everything I can get my hands on—journals, periodicals, newspapers, trade publications, employee reviews on webbased recruiting sites, you name it. I look at all the websites and social media of the major players and the up-and-comers in the industry. I set Google Alerts for industry CEO names or other keywords, and I watch lots of YouTube interviews with CEOs. I also use paid services like Bloomberg, AlphaSense, and Thomson Reuters.
In addition, I look at analyses from sell-side and buy-side analysts and search the SEC database—www.sec.gov/edgar—which has large amounts of information on every publicly traded U.S. company, including IPO documents, financial reports, and proxies.
I also scope out the most valuable industry conferences and attend them if I can. Events like the Wall Street Journal’s The Future of Everything Festival and the Consumer Electronics Show (CES®) in Las Vegas have valuable content, with a lot of it online. Sell-side conferences sponsored by the banks are an opportunity to meet management teams face-to-face and hear the questions investors are asking.
I also belong to the Business Council and the Economic Club of New York, which are valuable networking resources for me. They give me an entrée to CEOs in almost any industry I’m interested in learning more about.
In addition to CEOs, I seek out investment bankers who are most active in the industry and who know it deeply—bankers who have close relationships with management teams, have advised on lots of acquisitions in the space, and have raised billions of dollars of capital for these clients.
AI appears to be more of a friend than foe to the homebuilding industry, along with staple sectors of the economy, such as clothing and food.
we have an ingrained tendency to discount technological and social change. Most of us are programmed toward believing things will stay the same. Even Thomas Watson, the former chairman and chief executive of IBM, once said, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” That was in 1943.
Currently, the global economy is still based on an outdated model of sourcing cheap labor overseas, especially from China, and then paying a high price to get it transported to the consumer. For example, the goods travel on a plane or ship from Shanghai to Los Angeles, and then the dray containers go by rail to Chicago, where they’re put on a truck and driven to a warehouse in Kansas City. Eventually, the product is trucked the “last mile” to a consumer’s home or to a retail or manufacturing location. It’s a complex and expensive process, and there are plenty of opportunities for disruptions. This became painfully obvious to everyone during the COVID-19 pandemic. 3D printing can reduce the complexity, time, and cost of supply chains and de-risk links in the process.
The lack of timely information was a big problem for oil brokers like Amerex; we made our money by matching buyers and sellers and taking a commission. I could see that there were isolated pockets of valuable oil pricing data trapped all over the globe. And I knew that if we could figure out a better way to share that information, we could unlock a lot of value.
With Amerex humming, I had an opportunity to move to London with a billion-dollar line of credit. In 1984, I started Hamilton Resources, a privately owned worldwide oil trading company, this time with a strategy to create a data advantage in the oil trading business.
My next start-up was in the U.S. waste management industry. I remember vividly the moment the industry caught my attention in 1989. I was reading Merrill Lynch research reports in bed on a lazy Sunday morning in London, and came across a report written by Bill Genco, the top-ranked analyst for environmental services then. Bill had written that the two largest companies in the waste industry at the time, Waste Management and Browning-Ferris, were each making about half a billion dollars a year in profit, and I thought, How hard can it be to have trucks pick up trash, deposit it in a safe place, and send out an invoice?
in 1997, some of those competitors were still using pencil and paper and pushpins to do what we had computerized.
For example, if our data flagged an instance of too much equipment of a certain type in the Southeast, we’d lower the rental rate there and target customers who wanted the machine for several months, rather than just days or weeks. In other words, we were able to manage our rental rates efficiently based on equipment utilization to get the best return.
concept of dynamic pricing
We also stress-test every element of our projections, including the underlying assumptions. How likely are we to hit the base-case projected numbers? What is the upside scenario? The downside scenario?
For me, the decision is unequivocal: If an acquisition doesn’t create shareholder value by producing a high return on invested capital, if it doesn’t help us thrill our customers, or differentiate our offering, or fill a strategic gap, then it will just make us bigger, not better.
We can typically cut the due diligence and negotiation period from two or three months to a matter of weeks. To achieve this, we do a lot of research before we make our initial contact with the target business. As a result, our first or second meeting with a seller often goes something like this: “This is what we’re prepared to pay for your business, on these terms. If this is acceptable, we can be signing a definitive agreement in two weeks.” That’s going to get their attention.
What will be the big drivers of profitable growth in this business over the next five to ten years? What do we have to believe in order to be confident we’re going to achieve that growth? Are the assumptions underlying these beliefs reasonable or easily derailed? Are there big hockey sticks to the growth of revenue and margin without credible explanations for them? Can we accelerate scale more rapidly and at a much lower cost base by deploying AI, automation, or robotics?
What are the synergies we can expect from the integration? If the operational execution isn’t up to par, is this something we have the capability to rectify through training and/or our technology? What are the redundant positions, overhead, and real estate costs? What procurement savings can we realize from the added scale? Is there an opportunity for cross-selling to the rest of our company?
What’s the level of morale in the organization? Are the right people in place, with an effective organizational chart? Where might they be overstaffed or understaffed? Is the salesforce top-notch, or is there an opportunity to train them to be more effective? The same question holds for the human resources and financial planning and analysis staff. Are the compensation plans properly structured to motivate people to contribute to the business plan, or is that another opportunity to improve?
And externally, how do customers regard this business? Is pricing too high or too low to be optimal for the market? Are there any trends in government regulations or political policies that could help or hurt the business?
One way to keep up the pace but avoid the pressure is to talk to multiple acquisition targets simultaneously so that you never feel you must do any specific deal.
With United Rentals, for example, I could clearly envision what companies I wanted to buy and why—the list was right there, hundreds of small companies doing the things we intended to do on a grand scale.
I can’t think of anything less appealing than expending capital, taking on cost, and disrupting operations for no compelling advantage to my shareholders and customers.
This example is from my roll-up of the waste management industry: I bought a garbage collection company from an owner who signed a binding noncompete agreement. Then, when the ink was barely dry, his daughter just happened to open a competing garbage collection company down the street from the business we bought and started calling on what were now our customers. Granted, she didn’t personally sign the noncompete, so technically she wasn’t bound by its terms—but ethically? I felt she was.
One of the best uses of my time in the due diligence process is to do faceto-face talks with the top 15 or so people in the company we’re in the process of buying. I give these interviews an extra-high priority. They take about 90 minutes each
The sooner we can bring an acquired business into our technology ecosystem, the better. We want one enterprise platform, one human resources system, one CRM (customer relationship management) database for salesforce management, one business intelligence database, one internal social media community, one KPI (key performance indicator) dashboard, one training curriculum, and one email system. In addition, every new employee gets our procedures and policies manual, including our code of business ethics.
We place a priority on closing the acquisition books cleanly and standardizing the financial statements, monthly operating reviews, and budget so everyone is using the same format to present the numbers. We also move everyone to our incentive compensation plans and benefits programs. That way, we can benchmark people and locations, and instill accountability.
What’s the business doing well, that we’d be crazy to change? What’s the business doing not so well, that we’d be crazy not to change? What’s your best idea to improve the business? What’s something that could be made more profitable? Or more customer-friendly? Or improve the workplace environment?
feel free to tell me when I’m messing stuff up, and I’ll listen to you. We’re all on the same team now.
Some crowdsourced ideas will make it to the finish line and some won’t.
A prospective executive will go through seven or eight interviews, sometimes more, before joining the team. We’ll take all the time we need to find the right person, and we’ll leave a position open rather than hire someone we’re unsure about. An empty seat is less damaging than a poor fit.
When we meet to discuss whether to go ahead with the hire, I expect my team to respectfully disagree with me and with one another if they hold different views. By working collaboratively, we maintain a strong filter for who’s allowed into the organization.
you need a team of people who are smart, hardworking, honest, and kindhearted.
Screening for superior intelligence eliminates 90 percent of all candidates, so it’s the first thing I look at.
The smartest thing I do as a CEO is to make sure that most of the people I hire are smarter than I am.
the risk of confusing pedigree with ability.
Even a hint of arrogance can be a red flag. To guard against it, I ask myself two questions when assessing a candidate in my one-on-one interviews. First, “Can this person think dialectically?” That is, are they capable of thinking from multiple perspectives, and reconciling streams of information that seem to flow in different directions? And second, “Are they capable of changing their opinion?”
We meet one-on-one and ask each other to rate the quality of our professional relationship on a scale of one to ten. Then, if it’s not a ten, there’s a follow-up question: “What would make our professional relationship a ten?” These two simple steps are likely to surface ways to easily improve the relationship.
Wayland’s advice was to act decisively but compassionately once it becomes evident that an employee isn’t a match for the company. This is a difficult moment for the employee being terminated. Show them kindness, regardless of the circumstances leading to their dismissal. Let them go with their head held high and don’t be cheap on severance. Don’t create a situation where, a decade from now, you still avoid them in the supermarket.
monthly and quarterly operating reviews—MORs and QORs—are the most important meetings on the agenda. MORs happen every 30 days or so; we discuss the results of the prior month and define the opportunities of the coming month. In addition, we hold a QOR every third month to discuss the prior quarter as a whole before publicly reporting our earnings.
Some of the questions that have come my way are as follows: Why is revenue with a top customer trending down, and what can we do to coursecorrect it? Why didn’t the IT team launch the tool they said would go live last week? How can we improve the forecasting process for seasonal demand?
unvarnished honesty
“What’s your single best idea to improve our company?” and “What’s the stupidest thing we’re doing as a company?” This survey goes out every 90 days as an electronic transmission to every employee who has a corporate email address
provision
I never forget that my teams and I are fiduciaries for other people’s money.
In the history of our working relationship, he’s misdiagnosed a problem, ordered the wrong part, normal human-error stuff that we all do. He owns up to the occasional lapse and sets things right in a hurry.
April 19, 2025
This is book is just Brad Jacobs flexing on you. But solid read
#bradjacobs
#bradjacobs
April 26, 2025
I stumbled across this book on a YouTube suggested list for books related to starting businesses and finance. Although there was hardly any finance related talk, I was intrigued by the business talk, having just started a business of my own 2 years ago, and am in a stage of growth.
Something that really resonated with me was the author’s talk of “problems”. He states how as a business owner, you’re often hired to solve problems - so your view on problems and issues should be positive. This is something I’m currently working on myself, as my business is an engineering practice (literally, all I do is get hired to solve problems). This switch of mindset for myself has been really helpful.
As the book proceeds it shifted into introductory MBA talk. Like, staying at the forefront of technology, how to hire, mergers & acquisitions, etc. I think had I not taken extensive courses on these in the past, these chapters would have been more useful. They just seemed rudimentary for myself, and I didn’t get much out of them.
With that all said, I don’t think anyone will be learning how to make a billion dollars from this book. But they’ll definitely pick up a few core concepts widely taught in business schools, albeit from a business owner’s perspective. For anyone managing or wanting to start a business, I think there’s useful topics here.
My 2 stars doesn’t necessarily reflect a “bad book”, but rather a lack of acquiring new information. I do think there’s something here for others.
Something that really resonated with me was the author’s talk of “problems”. He states how as a business owner, you’re often hired to solve problems - so your view on problems and issues should be positive. This is something I’m currently working on myself, as my business is an engineering practice (literally, all I do is get hired to solve problems). This switch of mindset for myself has been really helpful.
As the book proceeds it shifted into introductory MBA talk. Like, staying at the forefront of technology, how to hire, mergers & acquisitions, etc. I think had I not taken extensive courses on these in the past, these chapters would have been more useful. They just seemed rudimentary for myself, and I didn’t get much out of them.
With that all said, I don’t think anyone will be learning how to make a billion dollars from this book. But they’ll definitely pick up a few core concepts widely taught in business schools, albeit from a business owner’s perspective. For anyone managing or wanting to start a business, I think there’s useful topics here.
My 2 stars doesn’t necessarily reflect a “bad book”, but rather a lack of acquiring new information. I do think there’s something here for others.
March 10, 2025
Good business book with many valuable insights. Brad Jacob has an undeniable track record and it’s refreshing to see entrepreneurs like him can still be spiritual and down to earth.
I think this book is best for entrepreneurs scaling large organisations but smaller entrepreneurs can definitely implement some lessons on personal thinking patterns, communication and culture for example.
Short read, packed with experiences and lessons. Definitely recommend.
I think this book is best for entrepreneurs scaling large organisations but smaller entrepreneurs can definitely implement some lessons on personal thinking patterns, communication and culture for example.
Short read, packed with experiences and lessons. Definitely recommend.
May 4, 2025
Despite the intentional clickbait title, I enjoyed learning about Brad Jacobs - the M&A king and his approach to company building. It’s clear, concise, and contains several practical tips that can be implemented regardless of you company size or industry.
January 31, 2025
Great insights about leadership and communication. I love reading books where the author has walked the walk. Only criticism I have is that it could’ve been longer. The title suggests a larger scale of topics will be discussed in the book. Not the case, mostly focused on leadership.
February 15, 2025
84%
How to make a few billion dollars. I will tell you right away, we are not related bananas. We were never bananas. That's not how this works. You misunderstood something. Beyond that, it's cool. Gives you some generalized advice, but the one thing you'll notice in these books is that they never tell you specifically how to do these things. They give you a lot of great generalized tips for success, but they don't expect you to make a billion dollars. They don't expect you to make a few billion dollars. These are just general success guides because if they tell you their processes, then their processes and systems are going to stop working for them. So what I'm really interested in is the how. What decisions are you making? What tools are you using to make these decisions? So while there's a general framework here, it's clear that he doesn't give you instructions on how to make decisions or how to actually go through these processes and figure out what the best opportunities for yourselves are.
What makes this a great book is it does give you a framework of questions to ask yourself and others.
How to make a few billion dollars. I will tell you right away, we are not related bananas. We were never bananas. That's not how this works. You misunderstood something. Beyond that, it's cool. Gives you some generalized advice, but the one thing you'll notice in these books is that they never tell you specifically how to do these things. They give you a lot of great generalized tips for success, but they don't expect you to make a billion dollars. They don't expect you to make a few billion dollars. These are just general success guides because if they tell you their processes, then their processes and systems are going to stop working for them. So what I'm really interested in is the how. What decisions are you making? What tools are you using to make these decisions? So while there's a general framework here, it's clear that he doesn't give you instructions on how to make decisions or how to actually go through these processes and figure out what the best opportunities for yourselves are.
What makes this a great book is it does give you a framework of questions to ask yourself and others.
November 27, 2024
A more fitting title for this book might be "How to Be a Well-Tempered CEO." While Mr. Jacobs comes across as a likable enough individual, my primary issue with this book lies in its intentionally misleading title. I didn’t expect a step-by-step guide on acquiring billions of dollars, but I was disappointed that the book barely touches on the most compelling aspects of his story—how he transitioned from a college dropout to co-founding an oil brokerage firm at just 23. This lack of depth is a recurring theme throughout the book. For instance, when describing his process for expedited due diligence or how he navigates SEC regulations, the explanations feel vague, leaving the reader empty-handed.
It’s also worth pointing out that I disagree with Mr. Jacobs’ blanket philosophy on investment. He suggests, “Follow the trend in technology,” which may have its merits in certain industries. However, this perspective doesn’t account for the dangers of overvalued economic bubbles. For example, many investors followed the technology trend in the late 1990s during the internet boom, only to lose significant capital when the bubble burst. I can’t help but feel that this philosophy has been cemented by the increasing "socialization" of the stock market by the U.S. government since the late 1980s and into the 21st century.
That said, the book isn’t without its positives. Mr. Jacobs has an impressive track record of delivering profits to shareholders, and his new company, QXO, will likely follow a similar path. I also enjoyed the appendix at the back of the book, particularly the timeline on the history of technological innovation (It was particularly interesting to learn that Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot essentially created the first car in 1769).
Ultimately, the book’s consistent lack of depth on critical details and its oversimplified philosophy on investment are the main reasons for my low rating.
It’s also worth pointing out that I disagree with Mr. Jacobs’ blanket philosophy on investment. He suggests, “Follow the trend in technology,” which may have its merits in certain industries. However, this perspective doesn’t account for the dangers of overvalued economic bubbles. For example, many investors followed the technology trend in the late 1990s during the internet boom, only to lose significant capital when the bubble burst. I can’t help but feel that this philosophy has been cemented by the increasing "socialization" of the stock market by the U.S. government since the late 1980s and into the 21st century.
That said, the book isn’t without its positives. Mr. Jacobs has an impressive track record of delivering profits to shareholders, and his new company, QXO, will likely follow a similar path. I also enjoyed the appendix at the back of the book, particularly the timeline on the history of technological innovation (It was particularly interesting to learn that Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot essentially created the first car in 1769).
Ultimately, the book’s consistent lack of depth on critical details and its oversimplified philosophy on investment are the main reasons for my low rating.
June 26, 2025
A successful business friend once remarked to me how truly difficult it is to make a billion dollars. He only in the millions.
That concept—very distant from my own world—sparked enough curiosity for me to pick up How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. I approached it less as a guidebook and more as a window into a mindset that operates on a very different scale. What I found surprised me.
Rather than focusing on conventional entrepreneurship or gradual wealth-building, the author walks readers through a sophisticated journey of equity management—identifying undervalued assets, acquiring or growing companies, and ultimately selling them at strategic inflection points. His methods aren’t about inventing the next consumer app, but about anticipating market shifts, recognizing where technology can deliver scale or efficiency, and moving at a unique time.
What impressed me most wasn’t the flash of wealth, but the deliberate pattern-recognition mindset. The author frames wealth creation not as luck, but as disciplined observation—a puzzle—of where the world is heading, what inefficiencies remain, and how to build or reposition companies to meet those future demands. His insight into timing—when to hold, when to grow, and when to sell—demonstrates an advanced understanding of economic cycles and technological disruption.
For someone like me, not even in the million-making business but interested in how systems evolve and scale, this book offered a rare behind-the-scenes look. It reminded me that while billions may be out of reach for most, the mental models used to create them—curiosity, strategy, timing, and value creation—are accessible and transferable across fields.
Whether you’re an investor, entrepreneur, strategist, or just an intrigued observer, this book delivers more than its cheeky title suggests. Interesting to explore the mindset of those in this realm.
That concept—very distant from my own world—sparked enough curiosity for me to pick up How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. I approached it less as a guidebook and more as a window into a mindset that operates on a very different scale. What I found surprised me.
Rather than focusing on conventional entrepreneurship or gradual wealth-building, the author walks readers through a sophisticated journey of equity management—identifying undervalued assets, acquiring or growing companies, and ultimately selling them at strategic inflection points. His methods aren’t about inventing the next consumer app, but about anticipating market shifts, recognizing where technology can deliver scale or efficiency, and moving at a unique time.
What impressed me most wasn’t the flash of wealth, but the deliberate pattern-recognition mindset. The author frames wealth creation not as luck, but as disciplined observation—a puzzle—of where the world is heading, what inefficiencies remain, and how to build or reposition companies to meet those future demands. His insight into timing—when to hold, when to grow, and when to sell—demonstrates an advanced understanding of economic cycles and technological disruption.
For someone like me, not even in the million-making business but interested in how systems evolve and scale, this book offered a rare behind-the-scenes look. It reminded me that while billions may be out of reach for most, the mental models used to create them—curiosity, strategy, timing, and value creation—are accessible and transferable across fields.
Whether you’re an investor, entrepreneur, strategist, or just an intrigued observer, this book delivers more than its cheeky title suggests. Interesting to explore the mindset of those in this realm.
December 21, 2024
Book = "M&A is good." Some interesting bits, but fairly self congratulatory and overly aspirational to anyone working for someone else who isn't in a position to dictate many of the techniques he advocates for, some of which are quite good, especially around meetings and paying good people well. Much of the book reminded me of a quote from my mother: "The easiest way to make a couple million is to start with a few billion."
March 25, 2025
better to be slightly understaffed; tend to be more focused and less time on busywork.
Embracing imperfection.
Think systematically.
Move quickly but cautiously.
Embracing imperfection.
Think systematically.
Move quickly but cautiously.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 23, 2025
read this in a morning because brad jacobs started united rentals. Kind of an unexpected character to who i thought would have been the founder of united rentals.
good quick read. wish there was more insight into united rentals in particular
good quick read. wish there was more insight into united rentals in particular
March 13, 2024
My dad met with the author and wanted me to read his book. Whether you’re reading from an entrepreneurial standpoint or not it’s really good lessons about people and working environments. Makes you think and has interesting perspective
Read
May 19, 2025Brad Jacobs recounts his journey to considerable wealth in How to Make a Few Billion Dollars. As an autobiography, the perspective is naturally from the driver's seat, highlighting the strategies he employed, particularly the early adoption of computer efficiency. While a comprehensive analysis of the broader impacts might be left for future historians, the book offers a firsthand look at the mindset and methods behind his business ventures. An interesting read for those curious about large-scale business creation from an insider's viewpoint. Note: Kindle Version.
May 15, 2025
Some of the mental exercises it had you do were interesting, and I did like the suggestions it gave about running more efficient meetings and promoting positivity in the work place. That being said, this book overall was just fine imo. It did not really give amazing business insights and basically had the message "Mergers are the best way to grow a company and create value for your shareholders" which was not a super revolutionary insight or particularly helpful for someone starting a smaller business.
Also, it was a slog to get through. It's only like 220 pages, but it took me 3 times longer to read than Game of Thrones lol
Also, it was a slog to get through. It's only like 220 pages, but it took me 3 times longer to read than Game of Thrones lol
April 5, 2024
Relevant for the mm or larger exec. Similar playbook as smaller companies and there are some good tidbits of meetings and ppl MGMT that is effective but otherwise a lot of generalities.
August 7, 2025
The title is, frankly, a huge clickbait. How to Make a Few Billion Dollars sets the expectation that you’ll get insider insights—stories of deals, hustle, business breaks, and the kind of intuition that leads to outsized outcomes.
While there’s a small sliver of that in the form of personal storytelling, most of the book is filled with management principles and general advice. Some of it is good, but that’s not what you buy this book for.
No one picking up this title is expecting shortcuts or quick money—they’re looking for the spark behind big success. From that lens, the book feels like a missed opportunity and a letdown.
November 19, 2025
How to Make a Few Billion Dollars podría ser catalogado como un libro de autoayuda, pero para mí pertenece mucho más al género de libro empresarial. Escrito por el reconocido empresario y estratega de negocios Brad Jacobs (conocido por su trabajo en XPO y United Rentals), este libro se posiciona como una guía cándida y a menudo brutalmente honesta sobre lo que realmente se necesita para escalar un negocio de una idea a una potencia global multimillonaria.
El libro se adentra en la mentalidad necesaria para el "pensamiento a escala". Jacobs desmantela el mito del éxito instantáneo, enfatizando que la riqueza masiva no proviene de un único golpe de suerte, sino de una combinación implacable de visión, planificación estratégica a largo plazo y la capacidad de soportar fracasos monumentales.
El núcleo de la obra radica en la disección de las etapas críticas de un negocio, comenzando por La Idea y el Producto: la obsesión por crear un producto o servicio que no solo sea bueno, sino necesario y difícil de replicar. Continúa con La Financiación y el Riesgo, que incluye historias personales sobre cómo gestionar rondas de inversión, la importancia de elegir a los socios adecuados y, crucialmente, cómo y cuándo asumir deudas masivas para impulsar el crecimiento. Finalmente, aborda La Ejecución y el Equipo, que es el aspecto más valioso y que más me ha gustado, por su enfoque en las personas. Jacobs argumenta que la transición de millonario a multimillonario es, fundamentalmente, un desafío de liderazgo y delegación, donde el equipo es el activo más valioso.
Podría parecer un libro un poco snob, de una persona de éxito al que solo le gusta hablar de sí mismo. Pero me ha parecido más un libro de confesiones. El estilo de Jacobs es directo, conversacional y carece de la jerga corporativa aburrida. Se siente como si estuviera sentado contigo en una mesa, compartiendo las lecciones que aprendió en el campo de batalla. Este enfoque se ve reforzado por el uso generoso de anécdotas personales de su carrera, especialmente las relacionadas con la consolidación y adquisición masiva de empresas en sectores como la logística y el alquiler de equipos. Sin embargo, precisamente por su naturaleza directa, el tono puede ser abrumador. De hecho, me ha parecido un libro de "llamada a la acción" más que de autoadulación.
También valoro su honestidad sobre el fracaso: Jacobs dedica tiempo a detallar sus mayores errores y las lecciones financieras y emocionales que extrajo de ellos. El libro también es eminentemente práctico y no se pierde en grandes palabras y abstracciones.
No es un libro que me vaya a marcar la vida, ya que su ámbito no pertenece a mi mundo, pero reconozco que ha sido bastante fácil de leer y entretenido. Por todo ello, 4 estrellas.
El libro se adentra en la mentalidad necesaria para el "pensamiento a escala". Jacobs desmantela el mito del éxito instantáneo, enfatizando que la riqueza masiva no proviene de un único golpe de suerte, sino de una combinación implacable de visión, planificación estratégica a largo plazo y la capacidad de soportar fracasos monumentales.
El núcleo de la obra radica en la disección de las etapas críticas de un negocio, comenzando por La Idea y el Producto: la obsesión por crear un producto o servicio que no solo sea bueno, sino necesario y difícil de replicar. Continúa con La Financiación y el Riesgo, que incluye historias personales sobre cómo gestionar rondas de inversión, la importancia de elegir a los socios adecuados y, crucialmente, cómo y cuándo asumir deudas masivas para impulsar el crecimiento. Finalmente, aborda La Ejecución y el Equipo, que es el aspecto más valioso y que más me ha gustado, por su enfoque en las personas. Jacobs argumenta que la transición de millonario a multimillonario es, fundamentalmente, un desafío de liderazgo y delegación, donde el equipo es el activo más valioso.
Podría parecer un libro un poco snob, de una persona de éxito al que solo le gusta hablar de sí mismo. Pero me ha parecido más un libro de confesiones. El estilo de Jacobs es directo, conversacional y carece de la jerga corporativa aburrida. Se siente como si estuviera sentado contigo en una mesa, compartiendo las lecciones que aprendió en el campo de batalla. Este enfoque se ve reforzado por el uso generoso de anécdotas personales de su carrera, especialmente las relacionadas con la consolidación y adquisición masiva de empresas en sectores como la logística y el alquiler de equipos. Sin embargo, precisamente por su naturaleza directa, el tono puede ser abrumador. De hecho, me ha parecido un libro de "llamada a la acción" más que de autoadulación.
También valoro su honestidad sobre el fracaso: Jacobs dedica tiempo a detallar sus mayores errores y las lecciones financieras y emocionales que extrajo de ellos. El libro también es eminentemente práctico y no se pierde en grandes palabras y abstracciones.
No es un libro que me vaya a marcar la vida, ya que su ámbito no pertenece a mi mundo, pero reconozco que ha sido bastante fácil de leer y entretenido. Por todo ello, 4 estrellas.
February 2, 2025
This reading felt like a 1-on-1 coaching class from a top business professional on how to achieve great a success. Straightforward and clear, every sentence is a wake up call. It is not for beginners, but rather for high end executives and entrepreneurs.
June 2, 2025
This book offers leadership advice that aligns with many others in the genre—honest and open communication, customer focus, surrounding yourself with talented people, and so on. First takeaway is we strive to make meetings more productive by crowdsourcing data and sending data ahead of time. This should help skipping rehearsed information sharing and jump ahead to the juicy discussion. Second is finding out the trend and properly reaching the business. Obvious, but true. A reminder to avoid romanticizing entrepreneurship with mystical enlightenment without the proper diligent work.
April 28, 2025
This is a surprisingly good read, despite the title was a bit cheesy. I treated as a supplementary to HBR books with real detailed information. Particularly enjoyed the team building process and merging to a newly acquired company.
April 17, 2025
I thought this book was great. It is a mix of self-help, storytelling, and M&A/investing strategy, which is almost the perfect fit for what I was hoping to read. I really really enjoyed Chapter 3 where he goes in-depth on M&A and integration. There is no better guy to learn from in these categories than Brad Jacobs, a guy who has led huge industry consolidations and countless transactions. This inspires me to do something more entrepreneurial with my career; I hope I have the balls to take the jump.
Some of his methods were certainly odd:
“As a business person, I would love to “buy” the universe and merge with it! Instead of focusing on my tiny self, I want to identify with the infinite totality of time and space.”
But he is successful so you cant say much. To each their own.
Some quotes that resonated with me:
“We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.”
“The deals I have avoided have contributed more to my success than the deals I’ve done.”
“We have it in our own hands to either make life meaningful or just pass time until we die.“
Some of his methods were certainly odd:
“As a business person, I would love to “buy” the universe and merge with it! Instead of focusing on my tiny self, I want to identify with the infinite totality of time and space.”
But he is successful so you cant say much. To each their own.
Some quotes that resonated with me:
“We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.”
“The deals I have avoided have contributed more to my success than the deals I’ve done.”
“We have it in our own hands to either make life meaningful or just pass time until we die.“
January 22, 2025
Great read. Lots of insights and wisdom. Hard sometimes to translate the advice from Brad’s billion dollar company setting to a 1-3 man shop but nonetheless tons of great intel and wisdom. Recommend.
February 9, 2025
There's some interesting thoughts in here.
May 1, 2025
Jacobs is smart but this book is slightly disappointing. I like the insights of acquiring at low multiples and integrating and embracing long term technology trends. Monthly operating reviews are good too. Everything else is common sense.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 155 reviews